The Large Scale Structures in the Outer Solar System: I. Cometary Belts With Resonant Features Associated With the Orbits of Four Giant Planets

Details The Large Scale Structures in the Outer Solar System: I. Cometary Belts With Resonant Features Associated With the Orbits of Four Giant Planets The Large Scale Structures in the Outer Solar System: I. Cometary Belts With Resonant Features Associated With the Orbits of Four Giant Planets

Sep 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999dda....31.0103o&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #31, #01.03

Statistics

Computation

Scientific paper

By using a fast and efficient numerical approach, we simulate a stationary distribution of comets in the outer Solar System, where just a few representatives of the multi-million cometary population is currently known. These computations account for the major dynamical factors, such as gravitational scattering of comets on the four giant planets and effects of mean motion resonances. Our simulations allow to reconstruct, in the space of orbital coordinates, the distribution function for the population of minor bodies between Jupiter and Neptune and beyond. This makes it possible to compute the entire structure of the cometary populations between Jupiter and the Kuiper belt objects. In our simulations, we deal with 36 stationary distributions computed at different initial conditions for the dynamical evolution of comets, which start from the Kuiper belt and are usually traced until their ejection from the Solar system. These simulations include about 30x 10(6) test bodies, which is comparable with the number of expected scattered comets (similar to Jupiter-family comets in their physical parameters). The simulations indicate that those comets are concentrated into four circumsolar belts, with a highly non-uniform and well structured distribution of the objects. Although the belts overlap, each belt can be associated with the orbit of the appropriate giant planet. This huge population is expected to have, as our simulations demonstrate, a rich resonant structure formed due to gravitational perturbations, i.e. in a non-dissipative way, and containing (i) gaps, (ii) diffusive accumulations, and (iii) near-resonance accumulations. It resembles resonant structures in the main asteroid belt, such as the Kirkwood gaps and the Hilda group. Our simulations allow for the foundation of a firm basis for observations of very distant cometary bodies, including Centaurs. Another important outcome is that the simulated cometary populations are the major source of dust in the outer Solar system. The distribution of dust from those sources could serve as a template for dusty disks in exo-planetary systems.

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